This was the best sandwich. Personally (and I know I am probably crazy) but I’m not a huge fan of corned beef or pastrami. I’m much happier with turkey or in this case, turkey pastrami.

So, this is kind of like a Ruben in that there is tasty bread (pumpernickel instead of rye), the earlier-mentioned turkey pastrami, swiss cheese and instead of sauerkraut, coleslaw. Oh and not just any coleslaw, fennel-herby coleslaw with orange zest.

It’s kind of like a Tyler Florence recipe I recently saw on Tyler’s Ultimate, except different (I went for cilantro and orange while he used lemon and tarragon). But, man, this was good. Throw in a grill pan for tasty grill marks and it’s like heaven on a plate. Oh and I just know I will be making this coleslaw all Summer long, with or without Turkey Rubens in mind.

Fennel-Herb Slaw:
1 large fennel bulb, fronds removed and halved
1/2 orange, juiced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 bag coleslaw mix
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
zest of 1/2 and orange
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finely slice fennel using a mandoline (again, not the instrument), or the grater attachment on your food processor or just a knife (I went the knife route).

In a food processor, combine the orange juice, mayonnaise, sour cream, herbs and olive oil. Process until combined.

Add the dressing to the fennel and coleslaw mix and add the orange zest. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Make the Sandwiches
Slices of pumpernickel or rye bread
Turkey pastrami (or regular sliced turkey will work)
Dijon Mustard
Swiss Cheese
Tomato slices
Fennel-Herb Coleslaw
Olive oil

Lay the bread out and cover with the cheese and the turkey. Generously apply coleslaw.

Top with tomato slices and spread a little Dijon mustard on the other bread slices before bringing the sandwich together.

Heat a grill pan and add a little olive oil. Cook each side for about 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Covering will help the cheese meltage. You’re not really trying to heat it completely all the way through, just get good grill marks and melt the cheese. That is all.

Let sit about 2 minutes before slicing in half.

Holy crap that was tasty!

***
And now, it’s Wedding Stuff:

Oh look, I figured out the beverage menu stands (for the reception table). Four wine corks, tied together make a great stand for dinner menus or wine menus. I would love to take credit for this idea but I’ve seen it many places online…whoever came up with this? You are a genius!

I made three of these tonight…only 5 more to go.

I have been meaning to make a blueberry pie all Summer — in fact, I have always wanted to make a blueberry pie. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done so yet but then I came across some tasty looking berries at Limbo and was inspired. Sure I was hot and yes, I was kind of lazy. That’s when I decided a blueberry crumble would be just as good. It was. Was there really any doubt? Nope. So, grab yourself some blueberries, a lemon, some assorted crumble accoutrements and you’re all set.

And, as if that was not enough, as an experiment, I mixed up some plain, non-fat yogurt, seeds from a vanilla bean, a little sugar and some cinnamon and threw it in the ice cream maker. I didn’t strain it or anything, just mixed it all up and that’s it. I ended up
with some pretty tasty non-fat frozen yogurt for the top of the crumble.

Blueberry-Hazelnut Crumble
Slightly based on a crumble recipe from the Whole Foods web site
2.5 cups blueberries (about a pint)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the berries and drain thoroughly. Put the blueberries in a mixing bowl and add lemon juice, sugar and one half tablespoon of flour. Set aside until you are all ready with the crumble topping.

In a food processor, pulse together the remaining ingredients until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Okay, fine, course breadcrumbs made of butter, oats, sugar and nuts.

Combine, and pour the blueberries into four 1 1/2-cup ramekins. You could, of course, just make one big crumble in a 9-inch pie pan. Next, cover the berries with the topping and bake for thirty minutes until the top has browned and the fruit is bubbling.

You may have a little topping leftover — just store it in the fridge and make yourself another small, single-sized crumble one night after work. Shhh!

Can be served hot or at room temperature. Goes very well with ice cream or frozen yogurt — store bought or experimental.

Coming up also this week: a fish dish with olives, capers and…bacon (!) and September’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge from one of my most favorite cookbooks of all time.

A week or so ago, jwa and I were outside surveying the garden and we noticed we had about 40 tomatoes (a mix of Early Girls and Romas) that had all ripened at once. Seriously. Something needed to be done and be done fast.

Enter Provencal Tomato Sauce. Wow — so tomatoey and garlicky. Make a batch or two and enjoy a little bit now and a little bit later from the freezer. I found this sauce to be so rich and intensely tomato flavored, I even added a little vegetable stock to thin it out just a bit.

We had some over some plain store bought gnocchi. Wonderful. The rest will be enjoyed over some linguine one night, once the weather is chilly again.

Provencal Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce
Recipe adapted from Gourmet magazine
olive oil for brushing pans
1 head garlic
4 pounds vine-ripened red tomatoes
1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp fresh orange juice, or to taste (I used the juice from 1 medium orange)
Optional: 1/4 cup vegetable stock

The garden tomato bounty

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. and lightly brush 2 shallow baking pans with oil. Now, if this temperature is too high for your oven (read: if it’s not spotlessly clean, it’ll smoke), do it at 425 degrees and just increase the cook time about 5-10 minutes. How do I know this works? Let’s just say I will be cleaning the oven soon…

Separate garlic head into cloves, discarding loose papery outer skin but keeping skin intact on cloves, and wrap in foil, crimping seams to seal tightly. Cut tomatoes into 1/2-inch-thick slices and arrange in one layer in baking pans. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons each of rosemary and thyme evenly over tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.

Put foil-wrapped garlic in one of baking pans with tomatoes and roast garlic and tomatoes in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, about 35 minutes total, or until garlic is tender and tomatoes are slightly charred. There will be tomato shrinkage — that’s okay. Unwrap garlic and cool slightly.

Peel skins from each clove and force pulp with warm tomatoes and herbs through a food mill fitted with small disk into a bowl. Another option is to use a hand-held blender and puree it that way. The blender will leave little bits of tomato skin, skin but I didn’t mind that at all. It builds character.

Finely chop remaining teaspoon rosemary and remaining teaspoon thyme and stir into sauce with orange juice. If it’s a bit thick, this is where you an add a little vegetable stock. Season sauce with salt and pepper and reheat if necessary. Sauce keeps, covered and chilled, 4 days or, frozen, 4 months. To reheat, simmer sauce over low heat and reseason with orange juice, salt, and pepper.

Like I mentioned above, I served this sauce with gnocchi and sauteed zucchini. It made great lunches for both jwa and I to bring to work.

I love these muffins — for they helped me use up some zucchini and the pepper and parmesan is a nice change from the typical zucchini bread spices. Also, sliced in half with a sausage patty in between makes a great breakfast!

You could also easily turn this into zucchini bread, just start checking on it’s doneness after about 35 minutes or so. If I had to guess, I’d say 45 minutes for bread.

Zucchini Basil Muffins
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp vegetable shortening, softened
1 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (add more if it doesn’t seem moist enough — I think I used somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup)
1 1/4 cup coarsely grated, well-scrubbed and drained well zucchini (about 2 medium)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp + 2 tsp Parmesan cheese

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, 2 tablespoons of cheese and the pepper.

In a bowl cream together the shortening and the sugar, beat in the egg and the buttermilk, beating until the mixture is combined well. Then, stir in the zucchini and the basil. I find it helpful to drain the zucchini before adding to the mix by gathering it in a tea towel and squeezing, squeezing and squeezing.

Add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture, stir the batter until it is just combined, and divide it among your buttered (or canola oil sprayed) muffin cups. Sprinkle a little of the remaining cheese on the top of each muffin and hit it with a little oil spray.

Bake the muffins in the middle of a preheated 400 degree F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean, turn the muffins out onto a rack, and let them cool.

As mentioned earlier, for a tasty breakfast sandwich, halve the muffins horizontally, spread one of the cut sides with a little Dijon mustard, and add a cooked and browned vegetarian sausage patty. Maybe even throw on a few leaves of spinach. Go crazy.

Too hot outside? Yep. I agree. If you can suffer through the boiling water and the grill pan (if you choose to add the tuna), this is a great meal. I just serve it room temperature. It’s delicious. I usually use frozen albacore tuna from Trader Joe’s — just defrost it the night before in the refrigerator and it’s ready to go.

Instead of the basil and dill, you could also use different herbs — really whatever you like. Plus, with all the veggies and white beans, this is very healthy. Hooray!

Summer Spaghetti
1/2 lb spaghetti
1/4 cup green or black olives (I used green, stuffed with feta)
1 bell pepper, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Englished cucumber, diced
1/4 tsp dried oregano (or more fresh if you have some)
1/2 cup feta (or more)
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
Olive oil
Splash of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Fresh Dill, chopped (about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper
Optional: Grilled albacore tuna, lemon

Add all the veggies and beans in a big bowl. Add the herbs, garlic, some salt and pepper and a little olive oil.

Cook the pasta. Toss with the veggies. Let come to room temperature and if you are using, grill the tuna (salt and pepper first). When it’s done, give it a squirt of lemon juice.

When the pasta and veggies have cooled a bit, add a bit more oil if desired, a bit of red wine vinegar and the feta. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. I typically slice the tuna up and then add to the top.

The leftovers also travel very well for the next day’s lunch.

Coming soon: WCC19, ricotta gelato and possibly even a pie. Now, as part of my new lifestyle, I will be going to bed soon so I can drag myself out of bed by 6:15AM. But, it is totally worth it as I love Stash Tea.

So, you might think that with a week off, I would be all lazy this week and not post. Nope. A really tasty salad today and hopefully, a tribute to Julia Child tomorrow. After that? Yep, probably lazy.

This was a quick meal for a hot day when jwa was working late and I wanted a big bowl of…something. Thankfully, it was too hot for pasta so a salad worked out perfectly. For the dressing, I didn’t really measure, I just know I used the ingredients in the ratio listed below. Start there and tweak as needed.

Blueberry-Goat Cheese Spinach Salad
1 bunch spinach, washed and torn (or baby spinach)
1 pint blueberries, washed
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/4 - 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
2 tbsp Walla Walla onion, diced finely (or any sweet onion will work)

Dressing
1 part honey
2 part balsamic vinegar
3 parts extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Make the dressing:
In a small bowl or mug, whisk the honey and vinegar together. Slowly drizzle in the oilve oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and adjust anything else. Done.

Salad:
In a big bowl, add the spinach, onion, blueberries, cheese and walnuts. Toss. Drizzle dressing to your liking and toss again. Done. Eat. Mmmm…

In wedding news, my dress is in! Hooray. I go pay the balance Wednesday and then they store it for me until, like, March and then I start the fittings for it. It’s so weird, there was a big flurry of activity a couple of months ago with the location, photographer, caterer and officiant and now, there’s like nothing to do for a while. I guess the next thing we’ll do is find a musician but probably not until this Fall or so. Ho-hum.

Well, one of the best, anyway. We were going to grill this outside but it was all cold and rainy so we opted for the grill pan. The marinade gives it such a good flavor. And I think one of my favorite elements of it was the accumulated juices after letting the pork rest — so excellent poured back over the sliced tenderloin.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Molasses and Mustard
From Bon Appétit magazine
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp coarse-grained mustard
1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin

Whisk molasses, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and both mustards in small bowl to blend. Place pork in heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over. Seal tightly and refrigerate 4 hours.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Drain marinade into heavy small saucepan. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Grill pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 145 degrees F, turning occasionally with tongs, about 20 minutes. Transfer pork to serving platter; let rest 5 - 10 minutes.

As mentioned in the intro, you can also very easily do this indoors on a grill pan. Just preheat the oven to 375 degrees, while you sear the pork on all sides, stovetop, in a grill pan (about 5-6 minutes).

Then, finish it off in the oven, roasting until the pork reaches 145 degrees — about 10-15 minutes. Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. Pour any accumulated juices onto the pork before drizzling with the reduced marinade sauce. It’ll make extra-extra moist and tasty!

Speaking of the sauce…
Meanwhile, (as in while you rest the pork), add tablespoon of remaining vinegar to pan with marinade and boil until thickened to sauce consistency, about 5 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise on slight diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange pork slices on platter; drizzle the thickened sauce over. We had this with some sautéed green beans & mushrooms and smashed goat cheese potatoes. Cool weather breaks in the Summer can be fun!

The nuts and tuna that the pork bumped, will be later in the week, I believe. Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars may also make an appearance.

Oh and belated happy birthday to Je Mange la Ville! My blog turned two years old on July 14th. Terrible Twos! Yeah.

Here we are with another Weekend Cookbook Challenge. WCC 18th’s theme is Red & White. For this theme, I chose to use my newest cookbook, Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, which I recently picked up after being a fan of her blog for the past year. The fact that I am posting about one of her recipes from her new cookbook on my food blog is amusing to me. I am easily amused.

I made the Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup, which is quite red and drizzled it with plain yogurt, which is white. Hooray! It had a really great taste and the smoky paprika added a great depth of flavor. My only changes are that I threw in a sprig of rosemary and I used a yellow bell pepper instead of a red one.

Roasted Tomato & Paprika Soup
5 tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
3 small yellow onions, quartered
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 cups vegetable stock
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 sprig rosemary
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil
Optional: plain yogurt for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and rub two rimmed baking sheets with a little olive oil.

Arrange the tomatoes, skin side down, on one of the baking sheets. Coat the pepper and onions with oil and place them on the other sheet along with the garlic. Add the sprig of rosemary to the onion/pepepr sheet.

Give both sheets a sprinkling of salt and pepper and then bake until the tomatoes start to collapse and the onions begin to brown and caramelize — about 45 minutes. Remove the garlic or turn the onions if either gets too dark.

Peel the garlic and dump all of the vegetables into a big bowl. Discard the rosemary sprig, allowing any loose leaves to go with the vegetables into the bowl. Add the stock (start with two cups and add more to your desired thickness) and puree with a handheld blender. You could also use a food processor or regular blender. Add the paprika and taste. Adjust the salt and pepepr as needed. When serving, drizzle with the yogurt if desired.

I found it very helpful to roast the vegetables in the AM, while it was still cool out and in the house. I made the soup early, refrigerated it and then the flavors got to come together a little more than they would have if I made it right before serving. Also, I didn’t have my oven on while it was super hot out! Just before serving, you can reheat. Or, just serve cold or room temperature.

Thanks again to Sara for hosting another great Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

Today is mostly pictures. Okay, there is also a really good peach-tomato gazpacho recipe from Gourmet magazine. On the fourth, as mentioned yesterday, we grilled, ate and hung out in the backyard enjoying the cool breeze. It was a very nice time.

Getting the grill going

jwa tends to the burgers

The end result — cheeseburgers (Tillamook cheddar) and some last minute vegetable rosemary skewers — we have a huge rosemary bush out front that is very handy in situations like this…

jwa assembles his burger empire

Enough with the burgers, let’s get to the gazpacho!

Peach & Tomato Gazpacho
1 1/2 lb tomatoes, chopped (4 cups)
1 lb peaches, pitted and chopped (2 cups)
1/4 cup crushed ice
1 medium shallot, peeled & chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Purée two thirds of tomatoes and half of peaches with ice, shallot, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 teaspoons tarragon, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a blender until very smooth, about 1 minute.

If desired, force through a medium-mesh sieve into a large glass measure, discarding solids. If you like a chunkier gazpacho or you are lazy, you can skip this step.

Toss together remaining tomatoes and peaches with remaining tablespoon oil, remaining 1/2 tablespoon vinegar, remaining teaspoon tarragon, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a bowl. Serve soup in bowls topped with the tomato peach salsa. When I made this, I did not make the salsa but used everything in the gazpacho. If you too chose this route, it works fine!

The end result is a little sweet and has a really nice tarragon flavor. It’ll be cold because of the ice but you can also chill it further in the refrigerator. Now let’s return to the red meat. Grrrr.

My single, lonely hamburger

Vegetable skewer

The mighty IPA…

We are off to Astoria this weekend to meet with the caterer (hooray!) and to meet with an officiant (hooray, too!).

For the fourth we grilled burgers and I made potato salad and peach/tomato gazpacho. I’ll post the gazpacho tomorrow. But today? It’s the ice cream.

I picked some basil from the garden and whipped a batch up. The basil flavor is very subtle so I also added a bit of vanilla. The steeping and the blending gives it a pretty, pale green color. The end result is an ice cream that was really pretty good!

I forgot to make it the night before, my typical practice, so I stored the pre-frozen custard in the freezer for about 45 minutes to chill it enough to load in my ice cream maker.

Basil Ice Cream
Recipe from Gourmet magazine
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring milk, basil, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a heavy saucepan, stirring, then remove from heat and let steep 30 minutes.

Transfer to a blender (reserve saucepan) and blend until basil is finely ground, about 1 minute.

Beat together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Add milk mixture in a stream, beating until combined well.

Pour mixture into reserved saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on thermometer (do
not let boil).

Immediately remove from heat and pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir until cold, 10 to 15 minutes. Alternately, make the night before and store in the refrigerator overnight. It’ll be well-chilled when you are ready to make the ice cream.

Stir in cream and vanilla and freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours.